The fifth set of matches in The Hundred conclude on Wednesday evening as one match takes place which is huge for both of the teams involved as the Trent Rockets host the London Spirit on a key night at Trent Bridge.
These two sides are in the bottom half of the table beginning the night and don’t really have any more room for defeats so whoever does lose this one could see their campaign come to a close. That should make for a dramatic night of action.
Where to watch
The match will be shown live and in full on the Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Cricket channels with the build-up beginning at 6pm ahead of the first ball at 6.30pm.
Trent Rockets
The Trent Rockets looked like they were going to launch a real assault on this competition when they won their opening match in the emphatic style that they did but things haven’t really gone to plan since then with just one more win in the three games that have followed, and they should have lost that but for the Manchester Originals choking at the finish line. Usually five wins get you into the top three so the Rockets do have room for one defeat but with three teams looking very good suddenly they might not have their destiny in their own hands if they do lose this.
The Rockets have got to come good with the ball. They are struggling to contain sides and that is a surprise when you consider that they have Rashid Khan in their ranks. One issue they have is teams bat so deep in this competition that they are prepared to sacrifice a wicket or two going after him and when they come off the innings has got away from the Rockets. They have the batting to deal with it but scoreboard pressure gets to everyone eventually and that is what we saw in the last game with the Welsh Fire.
London Spirit
This season certainly hasn’t gone to plan for the London Spirit so far and with three defeats from their four matches to date they are well and truly propping up the bar at the last chance saloon. The bad thing for the Spirit is that you can’t really claim they have been unlucky with any of their defeats. They probably should have won their match against the Birmingham Phoenix but then they could easily have lost the one they did win against the Welsh Fire.
Their bowling is probably the issue and that is a bit of a surprise because Dan Worrall has been getting them off to very tidy starts. The problem they have though is while he isn’t conceding many runs with the new ball, he isn’t taking many wickets either and teams know that they can catch up the longer the innings goes on. Where I’ve been most disappointed with the Spirit though is with the bat. They are much better than the scores they have put up.
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Key Players
The game might not be the Trent Rockets batters against the Dan Worrall new ball spell but if Tom Banton can get them off to a flyer and change the plan for the London Spirit it would have the home side in good early shape.
Shimron Hetmyer feels like a big player for the London Spirit here as the main left-hander in the side going to those short boundaries at Trent Bridge. If he can fire he might just take the game beyond the Trent Rockets.
Betting
I’m a little nervous about expecting a high scoring match having expected one on Tuesday evening and got the exact opposite but I can’t help but think that this one will go how I expect it to because there is just nothing really functioning in either of these bowling attacks and both teams bat incredibly deep. That is the one thing which wasn’t the case on Tuesday with the Superchargers batting running out at six. These two sides could well walk out with Jordan Thompson and Liam Dawson at eight. We know the boundaries are accessible here and I think both sides will back their batters to get the job done. The boundaries line for this one is 35.5 and I fancy this gets cleared given the power batting that is on show.
The other bet that I like for this match is for Shimron Hetmyer to be the leading batter for the London Spirit. He bats at five for this team and is 6/1 to top score and that feels like a good combination of price and batting position. I always like backing left handers here because that boundary to the new stand corner of Trent Bridge is a mishit for most lefties let alone one with the power of Hetmyer. The good thing about backing the Caribbean crusher here is the other boundaries are nowhere near big enough to contain him either. The two main Trent Rockets spinners naturally turn the ball into the legs of the left hander which helps as well so there are more than enough reasons to think that Hetmyer is the one to be on.
Tips
Back Over 35.5 boundaries for a 3/10 stake at 1.91 with Bet365
Back S.Hetmyer Top London Spirit Batter for a 1/10 stake at 7.00 with BetVictor
